Haunted
by BaskingInTheSunshine
Summary: It's years later and Sakura deals with the pain from the betrayal Sasuke caused when he left. She doesn't know if she'll be able to forgive him after everything that's happened. Kakashi is her crying shoulder. Healing takes time. A tale about forgiveness and new beginnings. Eventual KakaSaku. Non-romantic SasuSaku. A little angsty along with the hurt/comfort. WIP. Reviews welcome!


_"Sakura...thank you."_

_"Sakura...thank you."_

_"Sakura...thank you."_

Those words flashed through her mind as her attention snapped back to the real world, jumping away from Tsunade's attack at the last second. What did he mean? Thank you? For what-strengthening his resolve to leave the village since she was so obviously weak and not good enough to help him as a teammate, as a friend, to fulfill his goal? Why did such seemingly grateful words ignite such fury in every fiber of her being? Grunting in the anger her memory sparked, Sakura effortlessly switched onto the offensive, attacking Tsunade and parrying her shishou's blows with her own.

"You definitely earned your status as a jonin," Tsunade stated with a small smile, pride in her eyes as both women panted from their sparring match twenty minutes later.

The nineteen year old jonin smiled in response to Tsunade's words, exhaustion sweeping over her as she wiped the sweat dripping down her forehead before it splashed into her eyes. Even though Sakura was now a jonin, she still trained with her, now former, sensei, to keep her skills up to par. Tsunade rarely ever lauded Sakura so freely, and seeing the pride in her late shishou's eyes made Sakura's heart swell with affection for the woman who had become like a second mother to her.

"Don't think you can shirk your medical duties though," Tsunade said with a smirk, reminding Sakura of her graveyard shift at the hospital for the night.

The pink-haired medic nodded, and the two women parted their separate ways.

* * *

Sakura exhaled loudly, wet roseate locks falling and sticking to her face as she leaned against the wall of her shower, thinking about Sasuke's last words to her before he had left in his quest for power so many years ago. They haunted her. Something that should have made her happy, since it wasn't degrading as his words usually were, something that should have been forgotten years ago, had never made Sakura feel as conflicted as she felt now.

Even though the Fourth Shinobi World War was long over, and Sasuke had decided to return to Konoha-not without consequences for leaving in the first place-Sakura was still having trouble getting over the pain Sasuke had caused her. Her feelings of love for the boy had diminished long ago, but the feelings of betrayal and anger and hurt had not healed completely. Yes, she had readily forgave him when he apologized to both her and Naruto once he was accepted back into the village; yes, her past feelings for him were gone, replaced as affection for a brother and teammate-but it didn't change the fact that his betrayal had hurt her, and she was still healing and learning to trust him again.

But the fact that he had said those three little words-_"T__hank you, Sakura"_- giving her hope that maybe, just maybe he would stay and not leave-and then crushing that hope once he knocked her out-the fact that he even gave her hope at all, was the one thing holding her back from fully allowing herself to heal and trust Sasuke, or any man for that matter, ever again.

Sakura shut off the water and stepped out of her shower, drying herself with a large towel before pulling on her robe, entering her bedroom as she towel dried her short hair with a smaller towel. Getting lost in her thoughts once again as she rummaged through her closet for clean clothes, Sakura's mind drifted to her realization that maybe she just needed to let go of the past and start anew.

Forming an untainted relationship with Sasuke, with brotherly affection instead of romantic affection, might bring her some level of peace. Sakura frowned as she thought that idea over. She'd have to completely erase all feelings from past events, some of which were harder to forget than others. That wouldn't work. _Maybe we should actually forgive the idiot instead of just pretending that we already forgave him,_ her Inner Self pointed out. Sakura stopped mid-reach in picking up her boots, allowing her Inner Self's point to fully sink into her mind. _Maybe that's why I'm still so hurt,_ she concluded to herself, going back to reaching for her boots, quickly pulling them on and stepping out into her bedroom.

"But how do I do that?" she asked herself as she strapped on her medical pouch, ready to leave. She sighed and shook her head to clear her head, tired of thinking. Her stomach growled, and she checked her clock to see she still had two hours before her shift.

_Might as well get something to eat,_ she thought as she headed out onto the streets of the village.

* * *

"Kakashi," Sakura started, then hesitated as she was unsure of how to phrase her question. Kakashi turned his head towards her, looking away from his ever present orange-clad book. She had run into her first sensei on the street and invited him to join her for dinner at Ichiraku.

"Yes?" he urged in his calm, reassuring voice.

"Have you, um...have you ever had someone betray you?" she asked, unsure if he would answer her.

Kakashi nodded, elaborating as his uncovered eye clouded with emotion, "Someone very close to me betrayed me when he killed himself, leaving me all alone and ashamed of him. He was the reason behind my mask."

Sakura's eyes widened at this tidbit of information Kakashi had so willingly shared with her, blushing faintly in pleasure as she realized she had his trust. "May I ask who he was?" she asked politely.

Kakashi smiled sadly and replied, "My father."

"Oh," Sakura breathed, not expecting his answer. "I'm sorry." She looked down at her ramen, and then looked up into his gaze. "Did you ever forgive him?"

Kakashi smiled and patted her arm, seemingly to know why she was questioning him. "It was hard, and took a long time for me to heal from the hurt. I still don't even understand why he had to do it, but I realize that he did in fact love me and was truly sorry," he answered softly, adding at the last second, "And I'm glad I did. I'm much more at peace with myself than I was before I forgave him."

Sakura nodded in understanding and thanked him, taking a bite of her noodles and chewing thoughtfully.

"Is this about Sasuke?" Kakashi's question caught her off guard, and she nodded despite her embarrassment at having been read so easily.

"Even though I said I forgave him when he came back, I was, and still am somewhat hurt from his actions," Sakura revealed, glancing back at Kakashi's understanding expression. "I think I only said I forgave him because I was just happy that he was back, despite all the pain, and that our team was complete again. But I'm still having trouble accepting him back into my life and trusting him."

"Understandable, given the circumstances," Kakashi responded.

"Is it wrong of me to feel this way?" Sakura inquired, gazing into Kakashi's lone eye.

"It's natural to feel that way after betrayal," Kakashi admitted. "I certainly felt that way. But it always takes time to forgive someone, and even then time can't heal everything completely. But acceptance is the first step to forgiveness, at least in my book." Kakashi gave Sakura his reassuring eye-crinkle grin.

"Do you think I'll be able to fully heal and forgive him?" Sakura asked, her eyes doubtful.

"That's up to you to figure out with time," Kakashi responded. "But I think, with your heart, that you'll get past this."

Sakura smiled and blushed slightly, content with his response. "Thanks, Kakashi," she told him earnestly, setting her hand upon his, squeezing it to show her gratefulness.

"Anytime," Kakashi said, squeezing back.

Sakura left for her shift soon after, thoughts circling around Kakashi's words. Kakashi always knows what to say, she thought pleasantly. And he's always been there for us, Inner Sakura butted in. Not to mention he's pretty fine, her Inner Self added, trailing off. Oh shut up, Sakura thought to herself, blushing at her thoughts, secretly agreeing with Inner Sakura. I do not need to be checking out other men, especially my former sensei, when I'm in the process of healing! she thought as she made her way to the hospital, an unwilling smile on her face as she couldn't help but to think of Kakashi.

* * *

Kakashi sighed to himself once Sakura was gone, somberly thinking of how distressing it was to see a frown on his former student's beautiful face. His thoughts instantly turned morose as he thought of how his feelings had changed and developed for his former female student. Kakashi didn't know how he had fallen for his ex-student, but he had, and he had fallen hard. He didn't think that his heart was capable of loving someone, yet Sakura had snuck past his walls and into his heart. As their friendship grew closer over the years and through the war, and even now, during this time of peace, Kakashi's feelings for Sakura grew stronger with each passing second.

It would take time for her to heal and to possibly ever even think about opening herself up to love again. And if and when she was ready, he would be there waiting for her, hoping that she would heal his broken soul and quench his heart's desire to be loved in return.

* * *

A/N: Hi! Here's another one. This one is kinda angsty, but I'm thinking of doing a sequel to this. Not sure. So it's just a one-shot for now, but I'll leave it as uncomplete for now in case I do decide to do an after for it. :)

But man! I'm just pumping out these stories like it's all I do when I don't and have so many other things I should be doing (summer reading-school for me is just two sad weeks away). I just got inspired when I was reading up on Sasuke and saw his parting words to Sakura, and I had to write :)

I hope no character is OOC, but I think that Sakura would be hurt over Sasuke (given all he's done to her), and if he does decide to forget about his revenge on Konoha and come back to people who sincerely care about him, I suspect it would take a while for Sakura to forgive him. I mean, he did try to kill her...

Also, this isn't even one of my many ideas that I have written down. This was a total, spur-of-the-moment story for me. So I hope you guys like it :)

And thank you to everyone who has commented, viewed, favorited, and or followed any of my other stories. It's appreciated greatly!

Reviews are very welcome! :)

~Britt


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